1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle roof with a roof opening system which has a roof frame, which has at least one cover element for selectively closing or at least partially clearing the roof opening, a wind deflector which is located in the front edge region of the roof opening and which can be pivoted out of a lowered position and is pretensioned in the raising direction with a raising angle that can be changed by at least one positioning means which has a flexible element which is attached at a first end to the wind deflector and which is deflected on a deflection element such that a retaining force directed at a right angle to the plane of the cover element acts on the wind deflector.
2. Description of Related Art
In a roof opening system, such as sliding roofs or lifting and sliding roofs which have a cover element for selective opening or closing of a roof opening of a motor vehicle, it is conventional to provide a wind deflector in the region of the front edge of the roof opening which projects above the contour of the roof skin after opening of the cover and influences the wind flow so that wind noise can be reduced. Furthermore, designing the wind deflector for further optimization of the wind noise such that its raising pivoting angle can be selected to be variable is known. For example, the raising angle can be changed depending on the vehicle speed.
A vehicle roof of the initially named type is known from German Patent Application DE 102 31 169 A1 that comprises a roof opening system which is provided with a cover element for selectively closing or at least partially clearing a roof opening. In the front edge region of the roof opening, the roof opening system comprises a wind deflector which has a wind deflector leaf and two side wind deflector arms. The two wind deflector arms are pretensioned in the raising direction so that, when the cover element is retracted, automatic raising of the wind deflector leaf takes place. In order to be able to keep the degree of raising of the wind deflector variable, there is a positioning means which comprises a carriage element which can be moved in the transverse direction of the motor vehicle and which acts via a coupling rod and a pressure element in the transverse direction of the motor vehicle on a strip-like, flexible element which is tied at one end to the wind deflector and at the other end is vehicle-mounted. The carriage moves a deflection element for the flexible element in the transverse direction of the vehicle, by which the flexible element acts on the wind deflector to limit the pivoting angle of the wind deflector. The mechanism for actuating the flexible element which is used as a hold-down consumes a large amount of installation space and is provided with a complicated mechanism.
Furthermore, for variable height adjustment of a wind deflector which is provided for a roof opening system, separate drives are known which have, for example, a stepping motor and mechanical rockers with movable stops or also a motor, a slotted link mechanism and flexible belts as the connection between the mechanism and the wind deflector leaf. All these setting means are complex and associated with a major installation effort.